Head teacher Graeme Smart retires after 13 years at Kinlochbervie High School
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Kinlochbervie High School head teacher Graeme Smart is retiring after 13 years at the north-west Sutherland school, the last six in the top job.
The 61-year-old is standing down at the end of this term from the post he calls the “best job in the world”.
He says: “It is time. I came up here in 2010 and my plan at that point was to drift into retirement with nice small classes!”
But any thoughts he might have had of teaching at the remote school being an easy ride were quickly dispelled.
He has had to cope with the challenge of ultra small classes, staffing shortages and creating a 3-18 campus incorporating all the schools in the area.
Born in Glasgow, his father was also a head teacher and the family followed him as he moved schools from Glasgow to Bridge of Allan and back to the West End of Glasgow.
Mr Smart did not initially follow in his father’s footsteps but was a late entrant to teaching, instead working in a hospital and a supermarket as well as running his own retail outlet.
His teaching career started at Whitehill Secondary School, Dennistoun, before he moved on to John Street Secondary, Bridgeton, and then Tain Royal Academy. After a year at Tain he moved back south to Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, Fife, where he remained for 17 years.
When he arrived in Kinlochbervie, there were 60 pupils on the school roll – currently there are just 30, but it is hoped numbers will increase in the next few years.
He recalls: “Kinlochbervie was very, very different. I had come from a school in Fife with 1900 pupils to here where the largest class I had was 11 pupils.
“It was great but it has got its own challenges. Any teacher can teach very big classes. It is easy. You can have debate and discussions, but it is more difficult in a smaller class because there is not the same level of competition or variation. Also here we do not stream classes. There is no top set. Everyone is in the same room. It is not easy, despite numbers being small.”
He sees a major achievement during his time at the top as the creation of North West Sutherland Schools Group – a 3-18 campus comprising Kinlochbervie High and its three feeder primary schools, Kinlochbervie, Durness and Scourie.
“Although we are still four individual schools, we are a collective and our Thursdays when we bring everyone together is unique,” he says. “It has been a huge benefit for the kids. If you are in Scourie you might be the only p3 pupil there, for example, but when we bring the schools together we create a p3-4 class of a decent size and pupils have a peer group of their own age which they do not have in their base class.”
He added that the campus also made the transition from primary to secondary easier for pupils.
Other highlights include trips made by groups of pupils and staff to Vancouver, Canada, to learn more about Kinlochbervie World War I hero and VC recipient Robert McBeath.
But he sees the real joy of the job as forging a link with pupils.
“It is just having a relationship with the kids,” he said. “Nobody goes into teaching if they do not like working with children - it is that and the surprises they give you and the sheer pleasure.”
Highland Council said interviews for a new head teacher at Kinlochbervie High School took place this week.
Mr Smart, who lives with his wife Angela at Achnacarnin, Stoer, has no intention of leaving north-west Sutherland and does not think he will have any difficulty filling his new-found spare time.
“We have an acre of land and a byre I want to restore. There will also be a bit of travelling,” he reveals.
His last end of year address will be made at the school’s prize-giving next Wednesday, June 28.
He will always look back on teaching and his time at Kinlochbervie with affection.
“Without a doubt it is the best job in the world. It is sometimes the most frustrating job in the world and sometimes the most annoying!” he says
“I am looking forward to not doing it but I will always remember it as the best job in the world.”
